The field of computer network security has become increasingly important and complicated in today's society. Computer network environments are configured for virtually every enterprise or organization, typically with multiple interconnected computers (e.g., end user computers, laptops, servers, mobile devices, etc.). Typically, these network environments are configured to communicate with other network environments via wide area networks, such as the Internet. Thus, various files can be transferred from one end host to another end host in the same or different networks. These files may be transferred via any suitable electronic communication mechanism including, for example, electronic mail (‘email’) messages, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), and peer-to-peer file sharing.
Scanning executable software files and other objects is a technique that is often used to detect malicious code (“malware”) or other threats on a computer. Scanning objects for malware is generally performed using a static signature of known malicious code. Computer attackers often use a scripting language, such as JavaScript, to insert malicious code in otherwise benign files. The scripting language may be dynamic in nature and, in addition, obfuscation techniques are generally used to further hinder the detection of the malicious code. Thus, innovative tools are needed to detect malicious code in the form of a scripting language in objects that are transferred across computer network environments.